It's been a while...

I haven't been keeping up with my blog, so I mined my emails to fill in the gap!
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December 12
Dave bought tickets to Sony's holiday concert and we all trundled off to their cafeteria last night, not quite knowing what to expect. Three brass bands played and we were treated to 'Take Five' and 'Birdland' amongst others. The Japanese play technically beautifully, but they don't quite have the umph or spirit that my ear is accustomed to hearing. Although, just when I was wondering about the 'holiday' part of the concert, a group appeared on stage in Santa hats and other costumes (some very strange but were red or green) and played Jingle Bells and Silent Night with lots of smiles. Lots of umph, spirit and fun.

December 13
We did a maple sugar presentation for Eric’s classmates. We explained where we live and did a power point presentation showing the maple trees, sap, the sugarhouse and the evaporator. Dave threw in Japanese words where ever he could, and our tutor, Mari, translated everything he said and did a great job. We poured syrup samples and the kids loved it. Many, many could not finish, so I heard they had another round later. Some carefully brought theirs home.

I was impressed that the kids asked questions and that the questions were very good (each student raises their hand, then stands up to ask the question). I did notice that only the boys were doing the asking, so I asked Mari about it and she said that the girls were probably too shy.

December 16
For my business culture class, I wrote my paper on “A public education comparison - US and Japan”. We had to prepare a 20-minute presentation and allow 10-minutes for questions. I also did mine in power point again. They let us use the fancy computer classroom; it had a large screen on the wall and small screens at every desk. It was odd to look out at the class as I spoke and they were looking down at their desk screens.

Bridget has had a nice couple of days at school. Apparently there is a committee in charge of the school bunny and Bridget got summoned to one of their meetings. They communicated that they are concerned about the bunny digging holes and gnawing on the cage wire. Bridget drew pictures to show that they bunny's teeth need to gnaw and drew a stick. Then she drew that bunny's like to dig and to put boards or something solid in the area. She was quite pleased.

Then today she was putting the finishing touches on the latest edition of the 'Bunny News' and her teacher asked her if she could photocopy and share it with the rest of the class. Bridget thinks it's going to be their English lesson tomorrow.

December 20
I've really enjoyed my class, though it's funny being 20 years older than everyone else. I don't feel that much older! How can it be? The class is taught in English ... I am the one least exposed to the Japanese language out of all of us and it really shows. The kids and Dave are getting quite good. I have rationalized that my time has been better spent trying to understand the culture and am feeling happy and not so guilty about my lack of linguistic effort.

The kids have adjusted well to school, not that it's been an academic year for them, but it's been good for them to realize that they can handle strange things and survive. They are both very, very homesick though. Bridget announced last week that we are half way through the assignment. Not that she is counting or anything.

Our Christmas trip will be a good distraction so we don't miss our white Christmas too much!


January 1st – Dave’s journal
We spent today, New Year's Day, climbing up a small mountain outside Tokyo (1-hour commuter train ride). It snowed a few inches the day before, so the cypress woods were still full of snow and the trail was a bit slick. The trail climbs up through a Japanese cypress forest to a large Shinto/Buddist Temple. The place was FULL of people because the chief New Year's activity among the Japanese is to visit a shrine and pray for the coming year. So there was lots of activity: burning incense, writing supplications on paper and weaving them into ropes, praying at the many shrines (like the one in the attached picture), attending Buddhist service, eating, drinking sake from a vendor, etc.

January 3
We just got back from our Christmas Kyoto/Tokyo trip. Didn't find out about the tsunamis until we got to Tokyo late on the 27th. We were pretty shocked. We had spent Thanksgiving at Railay Bay/Krabi Thailand which is just a few beaches down from Phuket (the head-on hit). It makes me shudder because we can see in our minds exactly where people were living and playing along the water. I think I have a version of survivor's guilt. I keep imagining being separated from Dave and the kids and trying to find them. It's so horrible for so many people.
It's overwhelming to picture the wave coming through and how fast it all happened. At 10 in the morning, we would've been in the water, snorkeling, kayaking or exploring one of the cute little islands that probably isn't there anymore. Ugghh. The stories of people looking for family is heart wrenching.I looked up our resort and they have all the resorts color-coded by the amount of damage done with red being the worse and ours was highlighted in red. The whole region heavily relies on tourism for their economy, so they have a long way to go before they can entice tourists back. Mother Nature gave the gift of beauty to the area and she can take it away … and give it back too, I suppose. But fear is something that people have a hard time overcoming. I guess we should all look at it as the natural disaster of our lifetime has happened and the area is good for now.


January 10
English words are big here, and the context they are used in always makes me laugh. You often see t-shirts with English sentences that make absolutely no sense. But the car names are the best - the minivan named "Naked" is a good one. I have to go to a parking lot and make a list of all the names.

January 13
Basically, the Japanese follow the rules, and if it's not in their "manual" then they can't do it. It's ingrained in their culture. If you make an oddball request, they literally look it up in the manual and they will tell you no if they don't find the answer. They won't think a problem through on their own or look for a creative answer. I'm not criticizing, just observing. I’ve met many salespeople in the states who say ‘no’ without looking it up in their manual.

January 16
We have three months left to the assignment and it's strange because now I have to return to reality a little bit and start talking to the school about class placement for next year and making arrangements for our return... blah, blah. I've been living this other life and it's been pretty nice being this other person who is a world traveler! I have a few more trips up my sleeve ... we're talking about hitting Australia and the Great Barrier Reef on our way home. I don’t know when we’ll be in this part of the world again and we’ve got to take advantage of the proximity!


January 20
I can't complain about the weather here. It's mostly in the 40s, but it’s been nothing but rain, although I heard the rain was not typical and that it usually is sunny. Japanese homes are not insulated well, so the cold goes right through the apartment and we use a really dumb electric heater (mounted by the ceiling- which makes no sense). But we’re better off than the kids ... we knew their school had no heat (or a/c)-- but they leave the windows OPEN. We can't figure out why (our tutor says her school does not do that). All the kids sit there with their winter coats on all day. So Bridget, our I-like-the-cold except-when-sitting-for-eight-hours daughter, complained to us and Dave told her to close the window. She did and the teacher opened it up again. Bridget also complained that they have PE outside in their shorts and short sleeve PE outfits. We told her she would be sun bathing in VT in this weather and to quit whining. Bridget did say the teacher's room is heated.

Winter is officially over on February 4th. There's a special kind of sushi roll you buy on that day. The direction you stand in to eat it is very important and has something to do with good luck. Dave was laughing his head off about how silly it all sounded, but then I reminded him about Ground Hogs Day, and being a good Pennsylvanian he shut up.

No one better ask me to make sushi for them! The kid's Japanese tutor does cooking lessons with me every once in awhile. She said rolling sushi is too hard and she showed me how to make cone shaped sushi that doesn't have to be as perfect. Mine still was in shambles and fell apart. Supermarket sushi is just fine.

Our 12-year old friend, Stuart, and our two have been working on a Rover project that is sponsored by NASA. Mostly it's just been an excuse to get together and play. We are now coming down to the wire on the deadline and it'll be interesting to see if they actually pull the project together or punt it. (Update: they met the deadline! Here’s the link to their submission: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/gran/torino/SpaceDay.html)


February 1
The dreary rain we've been getting turned to snow today! There's just a millimeter out there, and to their credit, they didn't close the school. I thought for sure they would freak out. I drove Dave to work and did see some people with chains on their tires, though. The only other time we've seen snow was in Tokyo, so this is a treat. The wind is really blowing though, so we won't go out and make snow angels.